Thursday, June 16, 2016

It hasn't been a full week since the mass shooting at the Pulse Club in Orlando and in the last five days there has been a lot of negative discussions regarding the shooting, there have been those of concern for those patrons of the club, and the LGBTQ community, but why does there need to be a separate "community?" Every person that identifies themselves as gay, bi, or transgender are people, members of the human race and that is their community. They don't need a separate one, being a human being is all that they need. They deserve respect and dignity just like the rest of us. They have feelings just like you and me, they bleed red like I do, yet because they love someone of the same sex it's like they are less of a person, therefore needing a separate community to belong to. At least that is what the political climate would want us to believe. I don't care about the political climate, in fact I'm over politics and how with every disaster it becomes a platform for them to spew their rhetoric for all of us, hoping we'll jump on their bandwagon.

Most of us were raised with a set of morals and beliefs some of us are very active in those and others may not be. My point in writing this post is to say that we're different and it's okay! America was built on diversity yet it feels like we're all supposed to be the same because God forbid we actually use the brain God gave us to make a choice or decision. I was just a kid during the 60's and segregation something I don't remember. However, I am really feeling as if we are repeating history. Instead of segregating a race we're making those in the LGBTQ community second class citizens, and why because of who they love. Speaking of God, He created us in His image, He loves each and everyone of us, and He would've been in that club because He hung out with the lowest of the low, and He would've stood between the shooter and the patrons. So the next time you want to say that they deserved it re-think that thought or statement. No one and I mean NO ONE, deserves to be gunned down in hate.

I consider Orlando, Florida home. As a Navy brat Florida was my favorite place we lived, it is also where I graduated from high school. Most of my friends still live there, and my brother lives right down the street from this club. Any one of them could've been there that night or in the area.

That old saying "Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me." is a bunch of hogwash! They do hurt and worse than any stone throw, those words become part of a tape that plays in your head when you least expect it, it is on a never ending loop, it is something that you have to literally tell to turn off because it won't on it's own. Most of all remember that the people who were killed early Sunday morning were first of all people, they had jobs, families, they were loved and they will be missed.